


Before I Sleep

by escritoireazul



Category: Lilo & Stitch (2002)
Genre: F/F, Law School
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-07
Updated: 2011-01-07
Packaged: 2017-10-14 13:14:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/149573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/escritoireazul/pseuds/escritoireazul
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Myrtle is certain, absolutely certain, she is going to fail.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before I Sleep

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wizened_cynic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wizened_cynic/gifts).



> Prompt: plagued-by-law-school-finals character  
> Author's Note: This is a transformative work of fiction set many years after the movie Lilo & Stitch, but none of the other movies or the television series apply.

“You have to eat.”

Myrtle grabbed a pile of papers off the side desk without looking away from her computer screen. They were covered with highlighter marks in different shades, a neon rainbow that was far less thrilling than it looked: red for holding, green for facts, blue for precedent, yellow for reasoning, orange for dissent. Or concurrence, but mostly, these cases had dissents.

“Myr-tle the Tur-tle,” Lilo sing-songed. “Come play with me. And bring your high-lighters three. Slide down my rainbow and to my cellar door. Where we will eat dinner, because I’ve been hungry since four.”

“Lilo, I can’t!”

“Why not?” She leaned her hip against the edge of Myrtle’s desk, and came perilously close to knocking over her glass of water, now gone warm, the ice melted. Myrtle’s mouth was dry, her lips chapped. She hadn’t realized how thirsty she was, or how nice a cold drink would be. The heater was on--it was always on, it seemed, winter settled in early and looked to last--and until she moved to Boston, she’d had no idea just how much gas heat dried out your skin. Or how expensive it was.

Her apartment was small and cramped, and thanks to Lilo’s extended visit, there were far too many things crammed into a studio. Lilo was kind of a hoarder, and Myrtle was way too busy to anal it clean like she normally did.

“Because I’m busy. I have to finish this outline and I still have the final paper due for my clinic and finals start in three days.” Just saying it out loud made her stomach lurch and she started to breathe too fast, just this side of hyperventilating. “Three days.” That time, it was more of a wail. “I’ll never be ready. I’m going to fail.”

Lilo didn't say anything, didn't promise her she wouldn't, which was good, because there was no guarantee, absolutely _no guarantee_ that she wouldn't. She came perilously close her first semester, her body just flat giving out by the end of finals, alone in the cold thousands of miles from home.

That’s why Lilo was there, why she’d been there for weeks, why she’d stay through the new semester. She worked odd jobs back home, so it was no big thing to take the time off, and when you’ve had your own hovercar for most of your life, traveling was nothing.

Myrtle appreciated it, because she loved Lilo and she loved the way Lilo loved her, but in the end, it was Myrtle and her brain with as much information as she could stuff into it against the rest of her class, and she had a sick, sinking feeling that she was going to fail.

Lilo rested her hands on Myrtle’s shoulders and kissed the top of her head. “Compromise,” she suggested. “You study for another forty minutes and I’ll order pizza. When it gets here, you take a break and watch a movie with me. Something short and funny. Then you can do more work.” She squeezed Myrtle’s shoulders, a momentary massage. “You do need to eat.”

Myrtle sighed. “Okay.” She thumbed the edge of her papers, so much work yet to be done, but took a moment to smile shakily at Lilo. “Get pineapple on it.”

It wouldn't taste right, it wasn't Hawaiian pineapple, but at the moment it was the closest she could come to the flavor of home. Lilo beamed, a lopsided, maniacal smile, kissed the top of her head again, and bounded across the room in search of her cell phone.

Myrtle watched her a second, but _I love you_ and _Thank you for being here for me_ stayed still on her tongue.


End file.
